December 09, 2020: Do We Live by The Law of God or By Faith as Well as We Follow the Law of God?

I have come to better understand why so many of us, as Christians, struggle with living and walking a good Christian life. We want to do good and please God because of what He has done for us. That is good and commendable, but God does not ask that of us. He wants us to receive His free gift of eternal life, and trust in the work of Jesus, and then leave the rest of the work to Him. As long as we keep trying to please God with doing these good things, there lies the problem. In the book of Romans, the Apostle Paul speaks about this very subject...trying to live up to the law of God and trying to please Him and be a good person for the wrong reasons.

Romans 7: 1-2 (NIV)

Do you not know, brothers and sisters—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law has authority over someone only as long as that person lives? 2 For example, by law a married woman is bound to her husband as long as he is alive, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law that binds her to him.

So what Paul is saying here is that as long as we remain alive to the "Law of God", we will continue fail to God. We cannot live up to the "Law". We must "die to self" and live by faith is Jesus Christ. Just as a wife is no longer bound to her husband because of his death, we are no longer bound to the Law of God, if we die to self. Jesus fulfilled the Law for us when He died on the cross. We no longer live to the law...We only have to have faith in Jesus Christ in what He already did for us. That's it! Simple, but sometimes hard to grasp in the simplicity of God's gift.

As long as we keep trying to do good and try to please God, we will fail. We must allow the Holy Spirit to do the work through us. There is the difference..."None of Us, All of Him". Read the following in verses 5-6 in Romans:

Romans 7: 5-6 (NIV)

5 For when we were in the realm of the flesh, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in us, so that we bore fruit for death. 6 But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been "released from the law" so that we serve in "the new way of the Spirit", and not in the old way of the written code.

What a great freedom and peace that give us in our walk with God now. We don't have to do any work of trying to be good, except rest in our Lord, draw close to Him, be in His word daily, and allow the Holy Spirt to "lead us" in everything we do.

"THE SPIRIT VS. THE FLESH": Romans 8: 5-8

5 Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. 6 The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. 7 The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. 8 Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God.

PERSONNAL COMMENT:

Let us stop living by the flesh in trying to please God...Let us live by the Spirit and let Him do the work through us. And the only way to do this is by "complete and absolute surrender" of all of ourselves to God. May God give you the peace and will to surrender all to Him.